I must say that I have purchased the vast majority of my plants/shrubs/trees from the big box stores. If you keep your eyes open you can snag some interesting things. If I was limited to my local nurseries I would never be able to afford to do what I do - there is much good in that. I am a fan of maroon plantings to complement the predominant green of most yards, and especially since my shutters are maroon, but I must say if I never see another sand cherry it will be too soon. If landscapers are supposedly the "experts" at what to plant where and how to take care of it, then why are they the ones most guilty of the massive mulch volcanoes? Around here I rarely see "novice" home gardeners doing this, only the professionals.

I haven't been back to this forum for a while; It's good to see some activity on my old complaint threads! I suspect that almost everyone's mileage will differ. Each state will likely have somwhat different interpretations of the fed regs, and will certainly have their own rules. In areas with already strong MG programs, I'm certain that things will continue for at least a while. In my area that isn't the case. To be fair, the U of Mn continues to support research and outreach, and each county does have an extension office here. But more and more counties are like mine, with a part-time assisant (secretary) whose time is shared with another office or two. Our extension office fields calls for 4-H, some county health programs, pregnancy & early childhood development and some drug abuse prevention services programs as well as the ag and hort stuff. There is now an extension agent's name on the building directory, but I happen to know that she lives and works 90 miles away in another county. There is no computer or phone on her desk, so I assume she attends occasional meetings here, but largely telecommutes from her office in that other county. While the farm economy is small in our area, I did notice a yellow pages ad in the new phone book for a "farm consultant", so apparently the slow loss of free help from the government creates an opportunity for entrepeneurship!

@jimby3 Since I was in the shoes of the buyer, and I am the creator of this post, please allow me to comment on your situation. My seller was in a similar situation as you (in debt, lived in the house for a long time, had numerous belongings since he was a hoarder including heirlooms, and needed more time to move). Unfortunately, I was not notified that he needs more time to move. That was not in the contract (the contract only stated 3 days to move). Either his realtor failed to notify that to my realtor, escrow or whatever the reason is, I was not notified. Thus, I sold my current home at that time to my buyer and had to move out within 5 days from there. As a responsible seller and buyer, I checked the contract before I signed and planned to move out of my previous home within 5 days. However, my seller in your situation was not responsible enough to check the contract and didn't start packing his belongings on the 5th day. If your contract says 7 days, you must move within 7 days. Legally, the buyer should not throw away your belongings, but morally, I get what the buyer is going through. Your debt is not their debt. And your lack of responsibility for not reading the contract before signing and taking the money is not their responsibility. Whatever the reason is, please understand that the buyer also has their reasons. Your are not the only one in the world with a debt and a divorce. Being 7 months pregnant during that time, I ended up digging into my labor $$ to pay for that irresponsible seller's moving cost since his excuse was he doesn't have enough time to find money to pay for the moving cost so he needs to do all the moving himself (thus more time needed). We spend more than $700 for HIS moving cost and time off work to find and schedule a move as we also had to be there physically to make sure it actually gets done and help move his things to speed it up. After we spend a whole day helping him move and paying for his move, we had to stay awake overnight to move our belongings to the house so our buyer doesn't have to suffer what we went through. The stress during that time was detrimental to my pregnant-self and the baby, emotional and physically. And if something happened to my baby, the seller won't take responsibility. He only cared about this irresponsibile debt-filled self. So please be responsible and hire movers to expedite your move with your own $ that you gained from selling your home. That moving cost should have been calculated from the beginning.

Olychick, since when is expecting adult children to check on an elderly parent such a burden to the children? When were they at one time not a "burden" to the parent, too? For many, many years! In fact, no mother on earth ever quits worrying about her children, regardless of their age. I am speechless. I'm not talking about coming daily to give meds or baths or other personal care (although I have had many friends who did do this for a parent in the past). A daily check-in phone call will take far less time than these same adult children undoubtedly spend on social media. It's a very strange world to me where children feel they should be relieved of all responsibility for an aging parent short of putting them in a home or hiring outside help. I am quite capable of taking my many meds, bathing myself and getting dressed. I also pay my bills - nothing wrong with my brain at all. But it would be nice to be checked on regularly to be sure I'm okay. Frankly, I'm far less worried about falling and dying than I am about how long it might be before it's realized I'm MIA and someone needs to check...for the sake of my TWO DOGS!